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“Not long,” I say. “Somewhere between six and nine months. And if you’re hoping I know everything, I’m afraid I don’t. I’ll tell you everything I remember, but I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. Where they’ve gone. Why they left.”
They exchange another glance.
“It’s okay,” Liv says. “Anything you can tell us is more than we know right now.”
So I talk them through it. Tell them everything. Not just the things that happened here, but the breeding program, the drugs, all of it. So they can fully understand what it means. At some point during my telling, Maldek comes to sit beside me, putting a hand to the small of my back and rubbing in little circles as I speak. His presence is a comfort, his scent in my nose and his warmth at my side making it easier to tell them the worst parts.
“The problem is, I don’t know why,” I say. “Well, I do. On a basic level. To get a nine-year-old that looks like that.”
I gesture at Jassal.
“Tall, strong, claws and a tail. Adapted for climbing and camouflage. She’d be a better soldier than any pure human, no matter how good the Military Tier Breeding Program is at selecting for positive genetic outcomes. What I don’t understand is what they could possibly need that for. Mercenia never do anything that costs for the hell of it, and the expense of establishing a base here, bringing over those women in cryostasis, not to mention the expertise of the research team, the military unit to guard them, the managerial positions, transport costs, food, supplies, everything - it has to have been expensive. But the Corporation Wars were won, they had no other competitors. The last few remaining governments were stacked with Mercenia sympathisers and employees. I doubt many of those even exist anymore, nineteen years later.”
“They don’t,” Liv says.
“Unification Day,” Sally says. “They were working towards it even when I left ten years ago.”
“Happened about three years after you left,” Liv says. “The last of the outlying governments ceremonially seceding power. They probably hadn’t actually had any power for years.”
I nod. “All we were ever used for was uprisings within the tiers. Enforcers stamping out riots and protests. And Border Force going after insurgents. Small camps of people living in remote places, outside of Mercenia’s control. We were told they posed a risk to society. That they would bomb Mercenia cities and kill innocents if they weren’t rounded up, weren’t stopped. I had no reason not to believe that at the time. There were bombings happening.” I shake off the feeling of discomfort, the question about the validity of that intelligence we were fed. There’s nothing I can do about it now. “But we had that in hand. There wasn’t a threat on Earth that the military tier couldn’t deal with.”
“On Earth,” Liv says, her voice and expression dark.
I’ve never been cold on the raskarran planet, the warm temperatures of the day blending into balmy nights. But the tone of Liv’s voice sends a chill through me.
“Have you heard of Alpha Colony?” Sally says.
I shake my head, and she talks me through her story. A colony on a nearby planet, the opportunity for bottom tier workers to head out there, the promise of a better life. The understanding that it was a place that saw alien visitors but was controlled by Mercenia. The future of humanity.
Only Sally’s ship malfunctioned and crashed here part way there. While they waited for rescue, Sally met her mate, Jaskry, and discovered that Alpha Colony wasn’t what had been promised to her.
“They talked about something called the Meat Market, and I was going to be an offering to it,” Sally says, glancing at her daughter to ensure she’s not paying attention. “I don’t know if that would have involved sexual slavery or being eaten. Being eaten would probably have been preferable. But the fact is that Mercenia was going to Alpha Colony laden with gifts. It wasn’t a human controlled outpost, but some alien land, and Mercenia wanted a piece.”
“And they obviously couldn’t just take it,” I say, starting to follow to the conclusion of her logic.
“Just look at these guys,” Liv says, gesturing at the raskarrans around us. “You might be superior physically to most humans, but without tech, without a weapon, you’d stand no chance against a raskarran. Imagine an advanced alien species that also happens to have claws or scales or toxic spikes jutting out of their forearms or anything, really. Humans are weak, soft, defenceless. There are other species out there that could take everything Mercenia built back home in a blink. That knowledge must have had them pissing their pants.”
* * *
It’s too late to even think about waking up the other women, but I go with Liv down to the cryostasis room, point out the scientist. The person who might have the rest of the answers we need.
“Dawes,” I say. “I remember her surname now. She probably never deigned to give me her first. The research team were like that. Looked down their nose at me. Probably because they only ever saw me as part of their experiment.”
My thoughts wander back to Brannigan. The question of whether or not she knew. I don’t want to believe she did, and I don’t know how much that skews my analysis, but also, I just can’t believe that she did.
You’ve always reminded me a little of myself, Brooks. Wondered a few times if you were perhaps one of mine.
“You could pick a name, you know,” Liv says. “If you wanted to.”
The change in conversational direction surprises me, and I look over at her to find her scrutinising me.
“I imagine it was some part of their program of discipline and control,” she says. “And I guess it really makes no difference. None of the raskarrans would know that ‘Brooks’ is any different from ‘Liv’ or ‘Lorna’. But that’s one of the beauties of being here. You can remake yourself. Be who you want to be.”
“How would I even start with choosing if I wanted to?” I say.
I’ve always just been Brooks. That is who I am.
But so much of me has changed in the last few days. Because of this place, the things I’ve remembered. Because of Maldek.
